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Cons:

Relic's Dawn of War II was a big departure from what fans of the original game expected. Rather than just make a bigger game with better graphics, the development team decided to go in a completely different direction with successful -- albeit controversial -- results. Company of Heroes: Tales of Valor clearly demonstrates that the company's bug to "reinvent" signature franchises isn't restricted to the Warhammer 40,000 universe. The latest standalone expansion for Relic's Company of Heroes is as radical a departure, turning Relic's amazing World War II RTS into a completely different action-oriented animal. Unfortunately, the results weren't nearly as successful as in the previous re-do of Dawn of War.

Tales of Valor is built around two sections. The single-player portion of the game consists of nine missions broken into three mini-campaigns that tell three personal "tales of valor" from World War II. In them, the game take a page from World in Conflict and offers control of one or a couple of units and challenges the player to use their special abilities to fight their way through a variety of interesting strategic scenarios. Each of these is fun in its own way (protecting 10 Panzer tanks from an Allied assault in the "Swatting Flies" mission was my particular favorite), but they don't particularly feel like Company of Heroes. Indeed, it often feels like the developers are trying to shoehorn a classic RTS game into the sort of quick-hit action experience you might download from Xbox Live Arcade.

The multiplayer features, on the other hand, are considerably more successful, though even these have some issues. The best feature of the new package is easily the new variety of multiplayer modes. "Assault" is a World War II-themed "Defense of the Ancients"-style fight between two entrenched forces. Players control one "hero" unit and try to support their AI-controlled brothers in order to push through the lines and destroy a particular target. "Stonewall" is a co-op mode in which up to four players in the center of the map try to fend off 16 waves of increasingly difficult enemy assaults. Finally "Panzerkreig" is an updated version of the classic Atari 2600 game Combat. Everyone gets a single tank and tries to blow the heck out of their opponent's tank.

Company of Heroes was one of the first RTS games to really grasp the beauty of cooperative play, and that experience really shows through in these modes. Each of the "tank heroes" in "Panzerkrieg," for example, has different powers and capabilities that work together really well in supporting one another, which makes teams that really communicate with each other and combine abilities undefeatable. More than that, while it's a bit different than the classic game, the strategic depth doesn't prevent it from being a blast as an action game. More traditional RTS stalwarts like me, though, will really appreciate "Stonewall." This mode gives the player access to the game's entire arsenal in a frenzied last stand defense against overwhelming odds. Again, team coordination is the key, and when the mode is really clicking it's just awesome.

There are also a number of new units in each of the games' four armies, and true to form they're a blast to play with. My personal favorite is easily the American M-18 Hellcat tank that replaces the M10 Tank Destroyer. This zippy little turtle of a tank gives up some firepower for more speed and heavier armor. This has been a godsend in games against the Panzer Elite. It still won't allow an American player to keep with them in terms of maneuverability, but it does close the gap and it becomes a really nasty surprise when used as a rescue force for stuck infantry. On the other hand, I've learned to hate the Schwimmwagen 128 when it's been used against me. This replaces the German motorcycle unit and has reverse driving capabilities, making it even harder to catch when it's gunning down my engineers.

The problem with these units is inherent in the word "replace." The eight new units (two per army) are not additions to a player's arsenal. In order to use them, the player must decide before the game begins whether to drop two other elements. One of the hallmarks of a good expansion pack is whether or not it "expands" and deepens the basic gameplay without needlessly clogging up the works and making it more complex than it has to be. Tales of Valor completely fails to do that. As enjoyable as each of the single and multiplayer additions are (and they're quite good), the whole package comes off like a collection of mods the developers were tooling around with in their spare time. The original game is as great as it ever was and Tales of Valor certainly doesn't take away from that, but ultimately this "expansion" pack comes off as a modestly enjoyable diversion.